Supervisor race will stretch into November

MUSKEGON TWP. -- It turns out Muskegon Township voters will have a Nov. 4 ballot battle for township supervisor after all.

A well-known township resident has filed to run as a nonpartisan candidate: Richard Nolan, 56, of 1635 N. Roberts. Nolan, the former longtime principal of Orchard View High School, last week filed petitions bearing more than the 60 valid signatures required to get on the general election ballot.

Nolan's candidacy was spurred by township Supervisor Patrick Jordan's surprise announcement this month that he will resign, effective Aug. 31. That announcement came too late for any partisan candidates to get on the ballot -- the filing deadline for Democrats and Republicans was in May -- but Nolan was able to beat a 4 p.m. Thursday deadline for nonparty candidates to file petitions to get a spot on the November ballot.

In Muskegon Township's case, no Republican candidates are running for any township office. Until Nolan's filing, that appeared to mean that the winner of the Aug. 5 Democratic primary would be alone on the Nov. 4 ballot, virtually guaranteeing election to a four-year term.

But now that monopoly is broken.

"I've been considering running for supervisor for some time, but the gentleman that's in the office (Jordan) I've known for some time," Nolan said Friday. "I couldn't see trying to take someone's livelihood away from him.

"But when Pat Jordan announced that he was resigning, that opened the door to me," Nolan said.

Nolan said he is a Democrat, but because the filing deadline for partisan candidates had passed before Jordan announced his resignation, the only way to get on the ballot was to file as a nonparty candidate.

Nolan was an Orchard View school administrator for 25 years. He was high school principal for eight years, until the school board reassigned him in June 2005 to another administrative post, a move that drew a storm of protest from Nolan supporters. He retired in December of that year. Nolan has been a township planning commissioner for the last four years.

Competing in the Aug. 5 primary for the Democratic nomination are freelance management consultant John Cox, 46, of 2581 Kent; Alcoa Howmet casting technician Dave Kieft Jr., 43, of 2465 Evanston; and Jordan, who was a candidate for re-election before he announced his resignation after getting a job in Texas.